Chapter 16
Dying Shell
"We got some fresh blood, his name's Fischer."
A tall, beautiful woman with electric-blue hair rose from the table, towering over most of the others. Her eyes were an unnatural magenta-pink.
"A newbie, huh? Usually we get fire-starters or rock-skins. Boring shit." She stepped closer.
The worms beneath my skin thrashed. I clenched my jaw against the discomfort. My hand twitched.
"You sick or something?"
"...Just hungry."
"We're all hungry here.”.
Another woman sitting at the end of the table hadn't bothered looking up. Her platinum-white hair was pulled back in a bun. Her uniform looked tailored to her.
"Another dead man walking… how… exhilarating."
"That's Sadie," Kaz introduced her.
Sadie turned back to whatever she was studying on the table.
"Don't mind the Ice Queen, she forgets what it's like to be new," Zo said.
One more was partly in the shadows. She stepped forward, revealing striking features and hair that faded from jet black at the roots to silver-white at the tips.
"I’m Sophie. I'd say welcome, but that would imply you're going to enjoy your stay."
Another spasm hit me, stronger this time. A wave of nausea followed. The worms were getting more agitated, pulling deeper into my flesh. I forced my breathing to stay even.
I noticed the others keeping their distance, a subtle half-step of space between us. They'd seen enough new recruits to recognize the signs. Fresh Sacred, unpredictable power, potential danger.
"What are your positions in the unit?" I asked, trying to keep them talking while I fought back the nausea.
"I'm a bruiser, I can take hits, and get stronger. Simple but effective."
"Hunter," Sophie said, examining her nails, which I now noticed were more like metal claws.
"Strategist," Sadie supplied. "I ensure we don't all die from stupidity."
Kaz pointed to a rack of gear against the wall.
"Your station's over there. You get the broken shit because you're newest. Fix what you can. Sleep when you can. Eat when you can. Don't touch anyone else's stuff unless you want to lose some fingers."
◆◆◆
Finally allowing myself a second to breathe as I entered my room. The pain was getting harder to ignore. It was a desperate hunger that pulled at me, like a billion tiny mouths demanding to be fed.
The small room had a sink with a mirror above it. I needed to assess the damage. Know exactly what I was working with. Moving took more effort than it should have. Three steps to the sink felt like thirty. I gripped the edge and forced myself to look in the mirror.
Shit.
My now gold irises were ringed with crimson, but the real issue was my skin. Around my hairline, it had a grayish hue. When I pulled my collar open, I saw it spreading across my chest in patches.
I pressed a finger against one of the gray areas. The skin dented like soft clay and remained dented. The worms had withdrawn from these areas, abandoning them to decay.
"...Fuck."
The worms beneath my skin retreated further from my probing finger. I could feel them pulling inward, concentrating around my heart, brain, and spine. Leaving the rest to rot.
I needed to feed them soon. Very soon. But how? The facility was crawling with guards
I splashed water on my face, which did nothing for the decay but at least helped me focus. I'd need to cover the visible rot. I zipped my prison jumpsuit up to the neck and pulled the sleeves down to my wrists.
The discoloration on my face was harder to hide. In the end, I had to settle for keeping my head tilted so my hair would cover most of the discoloration. Not great, but it would have to do.
I took one final look in the mirror.
"You've got this, just need to wait for a surge. Then you'll feed."
My reflection stared back with hungry, inhuman eyes, looking unconvinced.
◆◆◆
I was halfway back to the staging area when the alarm sounded. Red lights began flashing along the hallway.
"Tear activity detected," announced a voice over the speakers. "All units report to deployment stations."
Doors opened along the hallway as Sacred rushed out. I pressed myself against the wall, watching them move, trying to figure out where I was supposed to go.
"Yo! Newbie! This way!"
Zo was at the end of the hall, waving impatiently. She wore armor now. A row of vicious-looking knives hung from a bandolier across her chest.
I jogged toward her, fighting the heaviness in my limbs. Each step sent a wave of pain through my decaying body.
"Tear opened early, are you ready to die?"
"Not particularly…"
She smiled and led me down a service hallway I hadn't noticed before. My vision blurred for a second.
"Where's my gear?"
"No time," Zo called over her shoulder. "We're at the secondary deployment. You'll get whatever's in the caches there."
We entered the deployment zone as other Sacred were gearing up. Sadie stood at a central console, issuing orders. Sophie was nowhere to be seen.
Kaz spotted us and walked over, now wearing a battered chest plate and carrying a massive golden axe.
"You," he said, pointing at me. "Stay behind the Shield Wall. Do not engage directly. Your job is to pull any wounded back to the medical station. Understood?"
I nodded, too focused on staying upright to argue. The worms were churning now, sensing the imminent violence, desperate for sustenance.
"The tear is stabilizing at fifteen meters, temperature dropping rapidly. First beast sighting."
"Defensive formation, Zo, take point," Kaz ordered.
Zo grinned, cracking her knuckles. "Time to play."
The team moved toward a massive airlock-style door. Through small reinforced windows, I could see flashes of light from beyond.
I followed, fighting every instinct to collapse. The rot was spreading; I could feel it creeping across my back now, the skin there going numb, then painful, as nerves died.
"You look like shit," Zo said as we reached the airlock.
"...Thanks. I feel amazing."
The outer door opened. Beyond it, a massive stone bridge. At the end, reality itself was torn open, and a glowing, frozen-blue light filled with dark shapes.
"Welcome to the bridge, cutie," Zo said.
As we stepped onto the bridge, a crack like shattering ice echoed across the void. The tear widened, and a giant blue gorilla pushed through.